Under the patronage of His Royal Highness, Prince Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz, The secretary of the Eastern Region Emirate, Dr. Khaled Al-Batal, inaugurated the Charitable Society of Autism Families in the region, on Tuesday, April 4, 2018 at the Chamber's headquarter in Dammam. The inauguration was in the presence of the Vice President of the Chamber, Badr Al-Rizea, members of the Board, Bandar al-Jabri, Najib Al-Sihati, and Nasser Al-Ansari, and a number of businessmen and interested and families of autism. Dr. Al-Batal honored Asharqia Chamber for its support of the Society with a memorial plaque received by Al-Rizea and the Secretary-General of the Chamber, Abdulrahman bin Abdullah Al-Wabel.
The ceremony started with a recital of verses from the Holy Quran by a child of autism. Dhahran Ahliyyah School participated in the opening ceremony by a silent play that its students performed about autism and how to the parents discovered it. In addition, a documentary film was presented in order to help parents to deal with their children through using different practices, as they should immediately look for signs of autism on their children by going to the nearest Autistic Services Center.
Charitable endowments
In her speech, Her Royal Highness, Princess Samira bint Abdullah Al Faisal Al Farhan Al Saud, spoke of the spirit of solidarity in Saudi society that derived from the tolerant religious teachings. She praised the great interaction and the high participatory spirit of the people of the Eastern Region. She called for the endowments to the people of special needs, so that there would be a permanent financial resource to support their integration into society.
The President of the Charitable Society of Autism Families in the region, Jouda alKharouf, expressed her thanks to Asharqia Chamber for hosting the Society's inauguration ceremony in the Eastern Region. She stressed its pioneering role in social responsibility and its initiatives to serve the community. She said, "The Society has provided services to more than 337 Saudi families and others. The Society opens its doors to all citizens and residents." She pointed out that the society is characterized by a variety of services between psychological and guidance, health and rehabilitation. They are ranging from 150 to 200 meetings per month. It seeks to increase partnerships with various private and public agencies for the service of its members with autism disorders by finding supporters of their initiatives. It aslo seeks to secure a permanent charitable stand that supports the Society and its mission with its resources.
Family attention
AlKharouf explained that she and all the members and employees of the Association strive to achieve psychological stability by supporting families through directing them to hospitals and centers of credibility in order to raise their awareness of the rights of their children. She stressed the need for increasing the awareness of families to be more careful of those who provide non-qualified sessions as they lack of necessary equipment, in return for amounts exceeding the income of families and not to take into account their circumstances.
Research project
Dr. Yasser Al-Dabbagh, Executive Director of Research at King Khalid Medical City and Psychiatrist Consultant, spoke about a research project on early intervention to treat autism spectrum disorders. He explained that it is a scientific research on the importance of early intervention and its impact on the development of the child's autism abilities. This project could be done through comparing two methods of early intervention supported by evidence that is not present or rarely exist in our communities now by using the method of clinical study. "The most important factor to improve the quality of life of those with Autism Spectrum Disorder is to improve their communicative abilities and social skills as early as possible," he said. "It is not a single disease but there are hundreds of genetic factors associated with it."
Commercial market
Engineer Suha Al-Faisal said the design of a market-building project would be a commercial destination to serve the community in the Eastern Region, and at the same time represents a vital and continuous source of income for the families of autism. It is a commercial building that will be built on an area of 22,000 square meters. It is a two-market building based on two ground floors, comprising 143 commercial and multi-purpose units. The second facility is the Autism Center, rehabilitation and educational center that provides high quality services that meets the urgent need due to the increasing numbers of autism injuries in children.
Sponsorship of an autistic child
During the ceremony, a number of other initiatives or future plans were presented, e.g., the Autism Children's Books series that aim of raising awareness and introducing autistic children and how to deal with them; the project of sponsoring a single child, similar to the program of sponsoring an orphan child in other societies; and the project to provide a sufficient number of tracking devices for children and families in need in an attempt to address the phenomenon of the loss of autistic children.
